


fins and freckles

by Saraste



Series: Nwalin week 2019 [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, First Kiss, Meet-Cute, Merperson!Nori, Nonbinary Character, Nwalin week 2019, Ocean, Other, Pirate!Dwalin, Rated Mature for Nori, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 11:12:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19018744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraste/pseuds/Saraste
Summary: Tired of a crowded and judgy tavern, Dwalin seeks solitude on a pier by the sea, but she isn't as alone as she thought.





	fins and freckles

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Nwalin week 2019 day 3: ocean. Beta-read by the ever-sweet katajainen, whom I do not deserve. All remaining mistakes are mine.  
> 

’You have… a tail,’ Dwalin says, choking a little, shocked, but unable to look away. She’s come to the pier to be alone with her thoughts, to give them the space impossible to be had in the small seaside tavern she has a room in. She stands out too much in there, gets gawked at, even if not everyone can tell her occupation, which makes her notorious in most places. No, she’s out of place because she’s tall for a woman, has a big body built for strength, and is not afraid to speak her mind. The tattoos do not help, either. The blue hair is neither here nor there, she _is_ a dwarrow, after all. Now, she’s come to be alone, and yet, there is a head poking up from the water below her dangling legs, and a finned… tail rising up from beneath the surface, curious dark eyes looking up at her from seven, eight feet away, kelp in amidst the russet hair flowing about; a mer-person.

The creature, no, the _person_ , in the water does a double-take, screeching: ‘I do?!’ as they spin their tail around in the water and stare at it, making a sun-catching spray splash across the gently lapping waves of the sound as they jerk about. He… no, _they_ , Dwalin decides, having seen enough with her keen eyes, are grinning with too many teeth as they turn to regard Dwalin. ‘I never would have noticed, not in all my long life. Thank you, oh kind, handsome stranger, for this momentous revelation!’ They blow her a kiss, winking, tail swishing under the surface again, so they bob only partially above the surface, head, shoulders and arms visible above the water.

Dwalin smirks. Pretty _and_ with a mouth on them. She continues on to sit on the pier’s edge, dangling her feet above the water below, the waves gently lapping at the supporting beams coloured with salt-water and speckled with a myriad of barnacles and algae. The sea sighs, the horizon beckons. But not as much as the mouthy person, who has interrupted her solitude.

The person swaying in the gentle afternoon waves, and yes, _definitely_ a they, for a sea-creature could never be something simple, flops onto their back and lets the water buoy them with its ebbs and flows. They smirk and the teeth are a little less. Deliberate? Possibly.  

‘So,’ they begin, ‘how did a handsome sailor such as yourself find…’ they stop to look her over, for a moment, letting their eyes take in the unmistakable bosom hugged by Dwalin’s tight vest over her linen shirt, ‘…her way here, to grace my day with your rugged presence?’ they ask. 

Dwalin hasn’t looked away and they seem to preen under her attention, as if they're a somewhat vain creature and not shy under Dwalin’s curious scrutiny, although they should be, shouldn’t they, Dwalin could be someone who wants to kill everything that’s different than her. She doesn’t, but this sea-dwelling beauty doesn’t know that. She wishes that her mundane world wasn’t so violent, so quick to judge.

The sun warms Dwalin’s tanned skin, the rolled-up sleeves showing off the tattoos in her arms, the crest of her hair rising blue and proud upon her otherwise bald, tattooed head. ‘I am simply enjoying the sun,’ she replies honestly, with a smile. Then decides to be a bit more honest and a bit of a flirt. ‘And the view.’ She lets her eyes wander again over the appealing form below her in the water; the gentle swells, the sharp edges, the middle gradually changing into the scaled tail, the fins bobbing on the surface, the lovely cascade of russet floating in the water around the person and clinging wetly to their shoulders. Yet, even with all that, the ready mouth that is now curving into a flirty smirk as the creature cups their chest where there’s roundness, feigning modesty, no doubt, even if, at the same time, Dwalin is sure that she has glimpsed something that…

Water splashes again as the tail-fin breaches the salty surface, making some droplets fly even all the way up to Dwalin’s face. ‘The view, eh?’ they laugh, voice sultry and singing of the sea and adventures therein, yet, it’s no siren’s song to lure hapless mortals to their doom, but a playful suggestion, that is all. Dwalin knows the difference. She shudders despite the sun and wraps her arms around herself, she has not been unaffected. But this isn’t that. _It isn’t_.

The creature frowns, looking up. They’re floating completely on their back, showing off again, arms outstretched to hide nothing, their russet mane forming a halo around their head, the pale skin displaying freckles, of all things, or at least things that seem like freckles, all along their pale shoulders and down the arms, cheek-bones and the bridge of their hawkish nose. The fish-tail of their lower-half, all interesting bulges aside, is glistening in shades of amethyst. The colour of their eyes is too hard to discern this far off, but Dwalin wants very much to know, wants to kiss those plump lips so eagerly turning into a smirk, into a flirt. She shivers, thinking what use those lips could be put, beyond bandying with words and kissing. The thought makes her bare toes curl and her body shiver at the mere thought.

She stares at those luscious lips and doesn’t think, longing making her bold. ‘I’m Dwalin,’ she offers, heart in her sleeve, captivated by this pretty flirty thing. She should be cautious, but the day is lovely, the sea is calm, and she is tired of always being careful. She’s too careful for a pirate, for one; Thorin is always laughing at her for that. And the person in the water is a thing from the depths, a creature of magic, with who knows whatever possible designs on her - or not. Dwalin thinks that she would be tangling up with seaweed and drowning right now, had they any notion of taking her life.

Instead, they sound out her name, slowly. ‘Dwaaaaalin.’

‘Well-met, I’m sure.’

‘I’m Nori,’ the creature offers. They look up at her, smiling. ‘And I’m coming up to join you, if you don’t object?’ They sound like they’re coming anyway, either she objects or not.

She shakes her head, her heart beating quicker, her breath shorter than before. There’s a mighty splash, which apparently carries Nori up onto the pier, grinning and dripping with salt-water and snippets of algae.

‘Well-met,’ Nori says, and her eyes are sea-green, up close, her skin glistening and… freckled.

Then she lunges, making Dwalin’s breath catch in her throat, but she’s helpless against the onslaught. 

Nori is water-slick in her arms and tastes of sea and wickedness and certainly knows what to do with their tongue. Their body is lovely with it’s mix of softness and hardness , bearing Dwalin down onto the pier, making her smell brine, even as Nori consumes her senses. 

It promises to be a lovely afternoon, indeed, not wasted on solitude.


End file.
